Plato Aims to Extend Mid-point BTCC Advantage

14 June 2007

The 2007 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship reaches its halfway point at Oulton Park on Sunday 24June, and having led the 30 round series since the very first race Jason Plato will be aiming to extend his advantage at the top of the Drivers’ table. His SEAT Sport UK team-mate Darren Turner is full of confidence after scoring his first BTCC race win last time out at Croft. He has only raced single-seaters at Oulton Park and the last time was in 1998 – yet Darren is sure it won’t take him long to reacquaint himself with the 2.26 mile Cheshire circuit, as he looks for victory number two in his SEAT Leon.

Jason has an excellent record at Oulton, having qualified on pole in 2005 and 2006 and given SEAT all-but one of its five podium finishes there – including both its two race wins. Qualifying first this time will be more difficult because, as Championship leader, Jason will once again start a race weekend carrying the maximum 45kgs of success ballast.

Jason is about to start his 228th BTCC race, 10 years after he made his BTCC debut, and he’s racing better than ever with an average score of 10.58 points per race so far this season. Darren, in his first full BTCC season and with 201 BTCC races less, has averaged 5.92 points per race – yet he is making rapid progress. Darren out-scored Jason at the last race meeting and scored more points at Croft than he’d done at Rockingham and Thruxton puttogether. Whilst Jason leads the series, Darren has jumped to 5th in the Drivers’ table – just 10 points behind 3rd spot.

The team hopes that both drivers will extend their current points tally and improve those statistics, particularly as the Oulton Park Island Circuit should suit the SEAT Leon, as the car’s superb chassis is ideal for the fast and flowing rollercoaster twists and undulations. And this will also be important in the BTCC Manufacturers’ standings – as a good performance could see reigning champions SEAT enter the second half of the season leading that category as well.

SEAT

See series calendar for British Touring Car Championship 2007

Related Story 03.06.2007 - BTCC Wins for Turkington, Turner and Giovanardi at Croft